Friday, January 7, 2011
Largest cheese platter: World Cheese Awards set world record
BIRMINGHAM, UK--The World Cheese Awards, the world's largest international cheese competition, has been crowned a record breaker by the Guinness World Records for creating the worlds 'largest cheese platter'. (enlarge photo)
The record breaking platter, weighing in at 1,122.5 kilograms, consisted of 139 different wedges: – from Gouda to Gruyere, from Camembert to Cheddar and there was a cheese from every country in Europe alongside examples from Australasia, the Americas and Africa.

The previous Guinness world record for The largest cheese platter was 1000 kg, which was made by the Vadersterre Group (Netherlands) at the Keukenhof in Lisse, Netherlands.

It took four dedicated 'cheese-o-philes' three hours to create the Guinness World Record platter, with each piece of cheese individually weighed, verified and documented before it was added to the giant purpose made board.

Bob Farrand, 'the awards' chairman and national director of the Guild of Fine Food, commented: "As the world's greatest cheese awards, we are now proud to be the official record holder.

"This demonstrates the wide range of cheeses available from artisan to mainstream producers from around the globe. Thank you to everyone involved."

Guinness World Records also recognized The World's Largest Soft Cheese which was made by Edelweiss Kaesewerk, Kempten, Germany weighing 180 kg (396.8 lb).

For over 20 years the World Cheese Awards has been bringing together buyers and sellers from the dairy industry worldwide.

It's the largest cheese competition in the world, attracting over 2,500 entries in 2009 from 34 countries and judged by over 150 expert buyers from every corner of the globe.

The 2010 Awards took place at the UK's largest consumer food exhibition, the BBC Good Food Show, which was held at the NEC Birmingham.